Gudfred

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Gudfred ( Latin Godofridus , Danish Godfred or Gøtrik ) was a Danish king who resided in Haithabu from 804 to 810 . His rule fell at a time when there was no Danish unified kingdom. Gudfred is known to be the ruler of the Danish islands and parts of northern Albingia , Norway and what is now southern Sweden . His empire is said to have extended from Schleswig via Funen , Zealand and the other islands to today's Swedish Skåne . Gudfred is therefore considered to be one of the early unified Denmarks .

Life

According to the representation of the sagas, Gudfred was the son of the Swedish Götar King Sigurd Ring (sometimes also called Siegfried; about 750-800) from Västergötland , from which he made parts of Götaland in what is now southern Sweden and (through Sigurd's marriage to Alfhild von Nordalbingen ) the Inherited peninsula fishing in Jutland . According to legend, Sigurd Ring had won his empire by defeating the aged Harald Hildenand near Lejre in Zeeland at the Battle of Bråvalla .

Gudfred married Åsa and thus became the son-in-law of the Danish King Halfdan des Mildes of Westerfold and the Lif of Westmare , daughter of King Dag, which gave him Funen , Zealand (including Hedeland ) and the other islands as far as Scania , plus Värmland and the Norwegian provinces of Westerfold , Hedemarken and Westmare inherited. This made the country part of the unification of the Danish Empire until Widuu . Presumably the visit of the Saxon Duke Widukind 777-778 went to King Sigurd Ring and the birth of his son Gudfred.

The Frankish Royal Frankish Annals mention Gudfred first time for the year 804. During Charlemagne after the final victory over the Nordalbinger the south Elbe in Hollenstedt outsourced, the Danish king came with his fleet and all the knights of his kingdom after Sliesthorp on the Schlei , the Border of his area to Northern Albingen. This Sliesthorp is identical to Haithabu. Originally a meeting with Karl was arranged south of Hollenstedt at the Danewerk , but out of caution Gudfred only sent negotiators and limited himself to letting his new neighbor in the south know about his army presence and thus his readiness for defense.

In 808 Gudfred attacked the Abodrites who had been settled by Karl to protect the Franconian northern border in Eastern Albingia and destroyed the Reric trading center near Groß Strömkendorf . He forcibly settled the Danish merchants who lived there in Sliesthorp. To secure Haithabu, he expanded the Danewerk by building Göttrikswall . In response to the Danish attack, Charlemagne had the Esesfelth fortress built and the Limes Saxoniae built in 809 .

After Gudfred 809 when Charlemagne had asked yet for reconciliation because of the attack on the allied with the Franks Abodrites, the Danes sacked the following year, the area occupied by the Franks to Friesland belonging Nordfriesland including the upstream Frisian Islands. On the mainland, the Northmen defeated the Frisians, which had been conquered by the Franks, in three field battles and made rich booty. However, there was no longer a military conflict with the advancing Franks, because Gudfred was murdered by one of his people in an inner Danish power struggle in 810. He was succeeded by his nephew Hemming . He immediately sent out negotiators and made peace with the Frankish emperor.

The assessment of Gudfred in the contemporary sources is ambivalent: While the semi-official Annales regni Francorum describe him as insane, presumptuous and arrogant because of his attacks on the dominion of the Franconian great power, Einhard considers it possible that the Danish king Karl wanted to attack in Aachen : " He even presumed that he would soon appear with a large army in Aachen, where the king held his court. And as boastful as his language, it was not denied all faith; Rather, it was believed that he would have done something like this if an early death had not prevented him from doing so. "

War of Succession

Gudfred had at least five sons, who were expelled from Hemming to Sweden , but who returned to Denmark after his death and who ultimately prevailed in a bitter war of succession against Hemming's successor Harald Klak and his clan and appointed Horik I as the next king:

  • Olaf, King of Westerfold († 827)
  • Gottfried (* around 785, † 814 near Haithabu)
  • Horik I. (Erik I.) († 854)
  • Rodulf (Rolf) († 836 in Friesland)
  • Ragnar († 836 in Friesland)

literature

  • Volker Helten: Between Cooperation and Confrontation: Denmark and the Franconian Empire in the 9th Century. Cologne 2011.
  • Sandra Polzer: The Franks and the North. On the difficulty of interpreting early medieval sources on the history of Denmark. Vienna 2008.

Remarks

  1. Other spellings are Geoffrey, Godefred, Godefridus, Godofred, Gottfried, Göttrick and Guthfridius.
  2. See Westermann's Great Atlas of World History .
  3. ^ Walter Markov , Alfred Anderle , Ernst Werner , Herbert Wurche: Kleine Enzyklopädie Weltgeschichte , Volume 1. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1979, pp. 236, 240.
  4. Annales regni Francorum 808: "vesano regi".
  5. Annales regni Francorum 809: "de iactantia et superbia regis Danorum".
  6. Vita Karoli Magni , Chapter 14.